Pricey food, dining out push retail inflation to a 13-month high of 3.5%

Retail inflation quickened to a 13-month high of 3.5% in April 2026, although still coming in lower than what was expected by most economists. The price rise was largely driven by higher food inflation as well as higher prices at restaurants as they passed on higher fuel prices to consumers.

Data on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for April showed that inflation quickened from the 3.4% registered in March, the first month following the start of the war in West Asia.

Data and justice

In the latest step in a long-standing effort to digitise the judiciary, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant announced two initiatives from the Bench, called 'One Case, One Data' (OCOD), a unified judicial data platform, and 'SuSahayak', an Al-powered chatbot on the Supreme Court of India website. OCOD promises a unified digital trail for a dispute as it moves through various courts, linkages between court records and litigant actions (such as appeals), easier access to various documents, lower need for manual verification, reciprocal ac-cess to High Courts and other courts, and more accurate judicial statistics. 

Managing coexistence in human-wildlife conflict zones

Human-wildlife conflict (HWC) is often framed as a conservation problem. In reality, it is a complex socio-ecological challenge shaped by land use, livelihoods and ecological change. Across continents, interactions between people and wildlife are becoming more frequent and more intense, not because animals are encroaching on human space alone, but because human activity is rapidly transforming natural habitats.

How India is governing its water resources

Global best practices underscore the value of wastewater reuse, efficient irrigation, and technological innovation

India's worker population ratio has climbed since 2022

The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2025, re-leased by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoS&PI) for January-December 2025, marks a significant methodological milestone. For the first time, the revamped PLFS covers both rural and urban India monthly a departure from the earlier July-June urban-only quarterly cycle. It also offers the most granular all-India portrait of the labour market across urban and rural India in recent years. 

The toll of structural adjustments on the global South and a case for accountability

The 1970s were a good decade for the global South. Between 1960 and 1980, real per capita income grew across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Countries that had recently thrown off colonial rule were investing in public healthcare and education, protecting their industries, and organising production around national development.

Then, beginning in the 1980s, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank began structural adjustment programmes across Asia, Africa and Latin America. Decades later, many countries in the impact regions continue to struggle with weak public health systems, stagnant incomes and high levels of poverty.

China's Foreign Minister set to skip BRICS meet in Delhi

There will be no high-level representation from Beijing at Thursday's meeting of BRICS Foreign Ministers in New Delhi because of "scheduling reasons", the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

IMD unveils 'block-level' monsoon forecast model

Ahead of the monsoon, the India Meteorological Department De-(IMD) on Tuesday unveiled a new forecast system that will, for the first time, generate "block-level" forecasts of the season's arrival over 15 States. The system com-prises about half of India's roughly 7,200-odd blocks. 

Fresh push for implementation of PM SHRI in Bengal, Kerala, and T.N.

The Union Ministry of Edu-cation has issued a fresh re-minder regarding the pending implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising India (PM SHRI) scheme to West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu after Assembly elections concluded in the three States.

Launched in September 2022, this five-year initiative aims to transform over 14,500 schools into "exemplar institutions" that lead the way in implementing the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, Union School Education Secretary Sanjay Kumar stated in his letter to the States, emphasising that 34 States and Union Territories have already moved forward with the scheme.

What trade deals promise are far from reality: CEA

Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) create value only once they are implemented not when they are signed, Chief Economic Advisor V. Anantha Nageswaran asserted on Tuesday, warning that there is a "substantial" gap between what the trade deals promise and what the regulatory frame-works actually allow.

'India-Oman FTA on track for June 1 start even as deal with Chile hit hurdles'

The India-Oman Comprehensive Economic Partner-ship Agreement (CEPA) will "probably" be implemented on June 1, 2026, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said on Tuesday, following a meeting with the negotiating team from Oman.

He added that the India-Chile Free Trade Agreement negotiations have hit some hurdles due to the difference in the sizes of the economies involved.

'Power, Finance ministries have accepted policy for linking fiscal incentives with RE adoption'

Seeking to encourage States to sign power purchase agreements (PPAs), renewable energy adoption would be linked to fiscal incentive for States, Prahlad Joshi, Union Minis-ter for New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) said at the Confederation of Indian Industry's Annual Business Summit 2026.

"Renewable energy adoption is being linked with the fiscal incentives for the States," he said, ad-ding, "The new policy which has been accepted by [Union] finance and power ministries both. Broadly, this is encouraging States to [sign] more PPAs.”

Govt. unveils insurance pool for Indian vessels amid West Asia crisis

Amid rising risks to ship-ping on escalating West Asia tensions, the Department of Financial Services (DFS) unveiled Bharat Maritime Insurance Pool (BMIP) holding a sovereign guarantee of 12,980 crore for continuous stream of maritime coverage.

The pool would cover all risks associated with maritime operations such as hull and machinery, cargo, protection and indemnity (P&I) and war risk for Indian-flagged vessels.

Cancer immunotherapy may reshape brain's barrier to metastasis

Scientists have found that drugs called PD-1 inhibitors can make the blood-brain barrier more permeable, a process mediated by the DKKI protein; this finding explains why

some patients develop brain metastases during treatment and suggests new ways to improve drug delivery to the brain